DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Potter County Courthouse. Now, every county's got to start somewhere, and Potter County started in August of 1887. The ink on the organization papers was barely dry before they got to work on a courthouse — and by 1888, they had one standing in old town Amarillo.
A firm by the name of Mays, Hightower, and Jackson built that first one, and they built it for the grand sum of one hundred and ninety-one dollars. You heard me right. One hundred and ninety-one dollars.
That courthouse wasn't going to intimidate anybody, but it was a start. Of course, Amarillo and Potter County had bigger ideas. Three more courthouses went up over the years as the county kept on growin'.
Then came the nineteen twenties, and the Panhandle caught fire — not literally, mind you, but an oil boom has a way of changing a place down to its bones. Business increased, the population of Amarillo nearly tripled, and eight skyscrapers went up in a city that not long before had been making do with a hundred-and-ninety-one-dollar courthouse. The math on that alone ought to stop you for a moment.
So naturally, by the time 1930 rolled around, it was time for a fifth courthouse — and this time, nobody was counting pennies. The commission turned to architect W.C. Townes of the firm Townes, Lightfoot and Funk, right there in Amarillo, to design something worthy of all that growth.
Amarillo builder Charles Lambie took the contract, and between 1930 and 1932, the building went up at a cost of four hundred and twenty thousand dollars. More than five hundred laborers — residents of Potter County, every one of them — applied to work on that building. Five hundred people wanting a hand in raising their own courthouse.
There's something in that worth sitting with. And what they built was worth the wanting. The Potter County Courthouse stands as a fine local example of art deco institutional architecture.
It rises with stepped massing, climbing from its entrance pavilion all the way up to the top of the tower — the whole structure reaching like it's got somewhere to be. The details don't quit either: ornamental figural and botanical bas relief, symmetrical pilasters, metal casement windows. Somebody put real care into every surface of that building.
From a hundred and ninety-one dollars to four hundred and twenty thousand. From a single building in old town Amarillo to a tower with bas relief reaching toward a Panhandle sky. Potter County didn't do things halfway — it just took them a courthouse or two to get warmed up.
What the marker says
Organized in August 1887, Potter County erected its first courthouse in 1888 in old town Amarillo. The building was constructed by Mays, Hightower, and Jackson for a cost of $191. Over the years, three more courthouses were built as Amarillo and Potter County grew. During the 1920's the Panhandle experienced an oil boom. As a result, business increased, the population of Amarillo nearly tripled, and eight sky scrapers were added to the city. The fifth courthouse in Potter County, this building was designed by Architect W.C. Townes of Townes, Lightfoot and Funk of Amarillo. It was constructed at a cost of $420,000 in 1930-32 by Amarillo builder Charles Lambie. More than 500 laborers, residents of Potter County, applied to work on building the new courthouse. The Potter County Courthouse is a fine local example of an art deco style institutional building. It exhibits stepped massing from its entrance pavilion to the top of the tower, and skillful use of details that include ornamental figural and botanical bas relief, symmetrical pilasters and metal casement windows. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1996